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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

How Do You Net?

Someone asked this question on a forum I frequently visit and it got me thinking. Many people go over various fishing techniques but not how to net a fish. Which is really probably one of the most important things to learn. It can be the difference between telling a fish story or having the fish available for further admiration and photographs.

Some say you should put the net in the water while fighting a fish then scoop it in as it gets close. I've had many problems with this method. I either have to drop the net because I'm so preoccupied in the fight. Then I spend too much time grabbing around in the water for the net blindly because my focus is on the fish. The resistance of the water itself is always more than you think. The current can make you lift the net slower than you like, sometimes that one split second can give the fish a chance to flip a fin and dodge the net.

When I net a fish I try to do it in one motion. I bring the rod hand back and stick my other hand out with the net. I think this picture from the blog AZ Wanderings illustrates it best.

Netting a fish this way is very effective because it's done in one motion and after awhile it becomes a habit. Lifting the rod high gets rid of slack line and keeps the fish's head out of the water. This gives the angler an advantage. Of course this scenario is only good for fish small enough to net. I'm curious about other anglers philosophies when it comes to netting. So..... How do you net?

11 comments:

You pretty much described exactly how I do it. High rod hand and dipping the net, and often times I bend the knees a little once the head is over the threshold so I'm not raking the fish across the lip.

The fish I catch are so small that I often send them air born when I set the hook. But the great part is that I've gotten pretty good at grabbing the net and catching them in the air before they fly by me.

I try to do it in one quick motion as well. I am prety sure that is about how everyone netting a fish by themselves does it. When netting for other people I keep the net out of the water and go straight for the head and let the fish swimming into the net speed up the process. I lost a 10lb dogfish when my brother in law botched the net job. He had the net sitting in the water and the fish shot past it getting the free hook on the jerk bait stuck in the net. It swam so violently the split ring for the hook it the fishes mouth broke and hit me int he face. It was very hard to not be mad at him.

Only part that got me was I told him to get the net out of the water until he was going to scoop it three times as the fish made its runs. It stripped line on my medium-light spinning setup at least three times and I knew it was still hot. It is a lot of pressure, and now he knows better. He listened to me the next fish I hooked.